The regional court in Stuttgart has sentenced a former handball coach from Fellbach (Rems-Murr district) to five years and four months in prison for sexually abusing children and young people. The man (53) already admitted the allegations against him at the start of the trial in April. At the time, he apologized to those affected. The verdict is not yet legally binding. But the regional court remained under the demand of the public prosecutor, who had demanded six years in prison. The lawyers for the victims have joined.
According to the lawyers, the victims wanted a guilty verdict, but never a heavy sentence. A sign should be sent to society. However, it was initially unclear what the defense was pleading. The final lectures were held behind closed doors. In order to protect the privacy of the victims, the public was again excluded during the process. The trial was originally supposed to last until June. However, the court waived further witnesses due to the confession of the accused.
There were more than 500 charges. According to the court, the accused abused the children and young people at least 500 times between 2006 and 2019. The man trained them, took care of them and thus built trust. Among other things, he forced his protégés to masturbate each other, said the presiding judge. According to the public prosecutor’s office, the handball coach filmed some of the crimes. The investigation got underway last summer when families of alleged victims contacted the association as well as the police.
